So am I an author spy? 

Well, I have imaginings of being an author. As for the spy part of the author spy concept, I suppose that depends. 

Within the US Intelligence Community (IC) a spy, when referring to a person non-ironically, is a pejorative. It is a label applied to those Americans who betray the US on behalf of foreign powers. Needless to say, this tends to not be a very popular life or career choice as far as the ranks of former friends and colleagues are concerned when someone is found to be a spy.

This negative connotation is why those involved in the HUMINT world (think CIA, DIA, and others) whose work involves the recruitment of foreign nationals to provide intelligence tend to not refer to the people they recruit as spies. Instead, the more common terms are agents or assets. 

Calling those spying on behalf of the US agents goes back to the origin of the modern IC and the rivalry between the CIA and FBI. While the FBI has agents, the CIA has officers who run agents. In addition to the childish cringe of such affectations, this also means that if you meet someone calling themselves a CIA agent or an intelligence agent, just walk away. They are very likely running some kind of scam even if it is only trying to pick you up in a bar.

Now that all being said, as a professional intelligence officer, my work at times has involved the collection of foreign intelligence. If you want to know more about that work, check out my biography. Although in fairness more is a bit of a misnomer. As with all cleared professionals I had to submit the text of that biography, and my books for that matter, to pre-publication review to ensure that the world did not end.

From the perspective of foreign adversaries of the United States, they would — at least rhetorically and reflexively — consider me and other members of the IC, no matter our duties, spies. Additionally, for the vast majority of popular media — films, TV, literature, video games, etc. — the technical delineation of spy vs. intelligence officer is not so much blended as ignored. 

So am I an author spy? As with most things within the IC, the answer to that simple and straightforward question is the ambiguous "it depends." 

Perhaps one day I can join the ranks of Ian Fleming, Frederick Forsyth, John le Carré, and Jason Mathews by being a successful author whose CV happens to include a generic black hole of professional intelligence work. For now, I am simply an intelligence officer possessing the pretentious hope of being an author. If the day arrives when I join the rarified ranks of successful authors, I will not object to my inclusion on a list of so called author spies, even if the term is perhaps not technically correct for myself and most of the others labeled as such.

Grey Hat it is

So I have gone back and forth for a number of months as to which of the two novels I would release first. In simple and practical terms the decision was made based on the outside editorial efforts that have finished with Grey Hat before The Sibyl Conspiracy. After a year of dealing with stops and starts I am defaulting to the bird in the hand versus bird in the bush model for a release plan. 

As I inch closer...

As elements in life cool down and I can get back into this process, I can't help but marvel at the amount of effort it is taking to ensure the highest quality product as the end state. I don't know about most authors, but the easiest part of this whole effort was crafting the original drafts. I hope the hours eventually work out so that one day, instead of being something I have to work into my days and nights, I can be crafting stories and providing an escape for others as a full-time effort. Because this has been fitful over the last few weeks, I accidentally prepared chapter five of The Sibyl Conspiracy for the site. Since I did it, I figured I would add it to the site for now. I hope this might be a pleasant surprise.  

Coming together albeit slowly...

Thus far I have managed to post the first four chapters of Grey Hat and three if you count the prologue, of The Sibyl Conspiracy. So far, I have basically remained in stealth mode. This is because I want all the planned chapters available on the site rather than generate demand and have the parts of my life that currently pay the bills get in the way. Hopefully I will be moving out of the stealth mode soon and even more importantly these stories begin resonating with people as they find an audience. 

So I guess it is time to begin.

In the course of writing these books and then working to gain traction with sharing my stories I had the unique opportunity to discover a great deal about the publishing world. This came through the French anthropological tradition of being a participating observer. From that journey I gained insights into both how it works and how it doesn’t. Although rejection was an inevitable constant during this effort I hold no ill will to any of the literary agents or editors with whom I interacted with during that time. However I have decided after some serious soul searching and objective analysis of the publishing world's current operational and business models that I am going to attempt to chart my own path. This in no way is me closing the door on working with a publisher or literary agent at any point in the future. I have the greatest respect for them and there are many I would be honored to work with as partners. Instead this is more an internal need to begin sharing my stories. Although there is obviously a degree of conceit and ego in every writer, myself included, there is also a desire by most to simply share our stories. My sincerest hope as a writer and storyteller is that I can provide to an audience an entertaining escape from whatever may be going on within their own lives. It is also my hope that one day I can make my efforts of storytelling into a full time vocation. So I guess it is time to begin.

Who Am I?

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